Category: South Asia
India’s Kolkata IBF postponed. Publishers “face starvation” with no digital safety net in a country of 755 million internet users
One might excuse the digital resistance for their reluctance to move with the times given India is...
Read More
India: “a very good year”, “extraordinary”, “best ever” – or “publishers facing starvation”. A tale of two publishing strategies (spoiler, one didn’t involve digital)
One might excuse the digital resistance for their reluctance to move with the times given India is...
Read More
400,000 expected at Pakistan’s Karachi International Book Fair amid a shift to an international focus, but digital embrace not in evidence
In Pakistan, where internet penetration is still at just 44.7%, it’s easy to lose sight of the...
Read More
India’s Jaipur Literature Festival will be hybrid in 2022, and free online access globally
The world’s biggest literature festival will be a hybrid event with in-person action for those...
Read More
Big Bad Wolf Sri Lanka is online again, this time teamed with Shopify
At its height Big Bad Wolf was taking books – literally by the million – to multiple...
Read More
With 25 million audiobook consumers, India takes third place behind USA and China. Might Storytel be eyeing an acquisition?
Audible and Storytel are the biggest foreign players in the Indian audiobook market, but keep an...
Read More
India’s online Delhi Book Fair expects more than 300,000 visitors this September
While the Delhi events organisers understand the potential of digital, the Kolkata organisers seem...
Read More
Behind Storytel India’s Tamil app is a bigger picture Amazon’s Audible has yet to see
For the literacy-challenged emerging markets the USP Tellander has latched on to which western...
Read More
Bangladesh Publishers & Booksellers Ass. seeks $190 million govt. aid to cover the consequences of its myopic pre-Pandemic indifference to digital
The Bangladeshi government needs to “sit down with the publishing industry and provide incentives...
Read More
Bangladesh Boi Mela lurches from crisis to crisis. Online sales soar. Pub’ Assns look the other way
“We are not sure what a virtual book fair is, but it will definitely spell trouble.”...
Read More
Bangladesh publishers pay heavy price for resisting a hybrid Boi Mela as event hours reduced and booklovers stay away
To state that “A virtual book fair can never be an alternative to our historic tradition” is to...
Read More
Bangladesh Amar Ekushey Boi Mela set for March as govt. minister dismisses digital and urges printing more books to sustain industry
Bangladesh began 2021 with just 58.4% of its population online, which sounds pitiful until you...
Read More